cladogram below illustrates the taxonomy and relationships among species of Naja: The population on São Tomé and Príncipe was recently described as a new species, Naja peroescobari, and a recent study (based on a Multilocus genotype dataset and morphological analyses) suggests that N. melanoleuca is actually a group of five distinct species: Naja melanoleuca Hallowell, 1857 - central African forests: Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Angola. Naja subfulva Laurent, 1955 - forests and savanna woodlands in eastern, southern and central Africa: Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Angola. Naja peroescobari Ceríaco et al. 2017 - São Tomé and Príncipe. Naja guineensis Broadley et al. in Wüster et al. 2018 - Upper Guinea forests, West Africa: Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo. Naja savannula Broadley et al. in Wüster et al. 2018 - Savanna regions of West Africa: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon. Description The forest cobra is Africa's largest cobra of the genus Naja and possibly the largest of all the true cobra (Naja) species in the world. The length of an average adult is , and they regularly attain lengths of , and lengths up to have been recorded in the wild. The mean body mass of the species in one survey, which did not exclude juvenile cobras per se, was reported at a mean of while large, mature forest cobras are known to obtain weights of up to . Males and females grow to be similar in length, as there is no sexual dimorphism within this species. The head of this snake is large, broad, flattened and is slightly distinct from the neck. It is a slightly depressed, tapered and moderately thick bodied snake with a slender tail that is medium in length. The body is compressed dorsoventrally (where the dorsal upper scales and the ventral lower scales meet at either side of the body) and sub-cylindrical posteriorly (the tail end of the body). The forest cobra has long cervical ribs capable of expansion to form a long, wedge shaped hood when threatened. The angle between the crown of the head and the side of the head between the eye, also known as the